Soon after embracing sobriety on 3.20.12, I realized that my laughter triggers has stopped functioning, and I’d never been much of a hah-hah guy to begin with. This was where alcohol came in, and why I loved succumbing to the rude, silly, sporadic kind of beer-buzz humor that I’d discovered in my mid teens….a cackling, mad-hatter laughter on the fly, depending on the joke or circumstance or how many sheets to the wind.

Well, that kind of vocal laughter had left my system. Sobriety had shown it the door. I’d always been an LQTM type but now I was really living deep in the well. And whenever a table of younger people (or middle-aged sillies on their second glass of wine) would break into gales of laughter, I would turn and glare daggers. I’ve been sober nine and a half years, and I still do that. Hearty chuckles and moderate laughter are fine, but shriekers are obnoxious. And if I’m in the vicinity, you can bet they’ll feel my silent condemnation..

…how the Supremes upholding a Mississippi abortion law that states an abortion has to happen with 15 weeks of conception…how exactly does that undermine a woman’s right to choose?

The Texas abortion law is ridiculous, and yes, the Mississippi law, passed in 2018, is restrictive and problematic for low-income women, especially in its refusal to make exceptions in cases of rape or incest. If it were my determination I would certainly uphold Roe v. Wade.

Under present Mississippi law, women who’ve made their decision simply have to terminate a given pregnancy within 105 days. Let’s say that an unwilling mom doesn’t learn that she’s pregnant until the six-week mark — that gives her nine weeks or 63 days to do something about it.

A woman’s right to choose is the central thing, of course, and no civilized person would disagree with this. A 15-week timeframe will obviously make it harder for low-income women, and I’m not oblivious to an element of cruelty in the Mississippi law. Which is why it’s better, I believe, all things considered, to stick with Roe.

But here’s an 11.1 Times op-ed piece that says Roe is “as good as gone.”

The Supremes will evaluate Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization on 12.1.21.

Two big advance screenings this week — Ridley Scott‘s House of Gucci (UA Releasing, 11.24) on Wednesday and Paul Thomas Anderson‘s Licorice Pizza (UA releasing, 11.26) on Saturday. Scott’s film runs 157 minutes; Anderson’s runs 133 minutes with credits, 128 without.

“Denis Villeneuve and his collaborators do not call [or otherwise identify the Dune desert culture as] Islam, nor Arab or any other MENA culture. Part One presents the Fremen as generic ‘people of color.’

“For all the inclusivity of its 2021 ensemble — which includes Jason Momoa, Dave Bautista, Oscar Isaac, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Chang Chen and frequent Villeneuve collaborator and half-Iranian actor David Dastmalchian (under white makeup and a bald cap) as representatives of Houses Atreides and Harkonnen — not a single MENA actor was chosen to play Fremen.”

HE comment: I say cancel Dune right now. Villenueve and the other anti-MENA racists messed up, and they have to pay the piper. Cue Timothee Chalamet reaction: “I had nothing to do with the casting of Dune, but if you guys want Villeneuve cancelled or demoted, I’ll go along with it.”

“Instead, they are played by actors like Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Zendaya, Javier Bardem and Babs Olusanmokun. (As Dune super fan John Hodgman recently said, ‘I’m very conflicted about Javier Bardem. I don’t know what accent he’s doing. What’s that supposed to be?’)” — from Roxana Hadadi‘s “Dune Has a Desert Problem,” Vulture-posted on 10.29.21.

“What did Thomas Alva Edison know? He sure knew how to rain on people’s parades back in 1910, I’ll tell you that much! In any event we, the citizens of 2021, don’t want to hear his alleged insights either.”

Seriously, folks…when Tom O’Neill, Steven Gaydos, Guy Lodge and all the other wonderful people of our delightful mutual hellscape escape this mortal coil, I’m afraid that no cosmic residue will remain. Me too, I’m afraid. Lights out and adios, muchachos. Be here now.

So the moon’s on a collision course with earth due to…what again? Basically another Armageddon by way of When Worlds Collide (’51). The lead casting of scary movie guy Patrick Wilson is a tip-off. The fat Millennial guy with glasses is British actor John Bradley (Game of Thrones).

YouTube guy: “It’s been awhile since we’ve had a movie like this. I feel like we’re overdue for another fun and entertaining disaster flick. And leave it to the pioneer himself, Roland, to deliver!”

The unnamed daughter of Jett Wells and Caitlin Bennett is due on 11.18. (I’ve just been told that Maeve is a placeholder.). My first reaction to the new ultrasound image was “part serenity, part Francis Bacon portraiture, part Rodin’s ‘The Thinker.’” It’s like she’s resting her face on the palm of her right hand.

I thought I knew what ugliness was in high school, and I did in a manner of speaking. Young, callow, short-sighted ugliness. But the ugliness of right now (the Millennial and Zoomer kind, the Tom O’Neill kind, the wokester snowflake kind, the Variety kind) is worse, much worse.

You could almost call…hell, I will call SNL guy and King of Staten Island star Pete Davidson the Warren Beatty of the 20teens and ’20s. I don’t keep close tabs and it’s none of my damn business anyway, but it seems as if the guy is constantly getting ass, and now Gawker is reporting that Pete is putting the high hard one** to Kim Kardashian.

Quote: “Gawker can exclusively confirm via our own ‘insider’ that Kardashian, 41, and Davidson, 27, spent the night together at a Los Angeles hotel on October 28. Do we need to say it? They were not having a Gilmore Girls marathon.”

The impulsive Shallow Hal crowd (Millennials, Zoomers) will probably avoid Asghar Farhadi‘s A Hero (Amazon, 1.7.22) like the plague, but it’s easily one of the 2021’s finest films. It’s all dialogue and all medium shots, but the titular character of Rahim (Amir Jadidi) is slowly nibbled and then bloodied and finally swallowed by the social media mob. 127 minutes long, A Hero is a steady and persistent indictment of…I don’t know, everyone and everything.